Work continues for Pope’s visit

TIRANA, Sept. 03 – Tirana is getting ready for the much-expected visit from Pope Francis alters this month.
Pope Francis chose of Albania as the destination of his first international trip in Europe Sept. 21.
Work is continuing non-stop at the Mother Teresa Square in front of the main Tirana University building downtown capital Tirana. The Pope will hold there a mass. Besides the monument at Rinasi international airport was removed and replaced with another one.
Pope’s visit is of great significance for the country, with a Muslim majority.
That would be the second pope’s visit to post-communist Albania, following that of Paul John II in 1993.
“I am going to Albania for two important motives,” said the pope during a press conference coming back from Korea’s trip. “First, because they have been able to form a governmentتust think of the Balkans, they have been able to form a government of national unity with Muslims, Orthodox and Catholics, with an interreligious council that helps a lot and is balanced. This is good, and harmonious. The presence of the pope wishes to say to all the peoples [of the world] that it’s possible to work together. I felt it as a real help to that noble people.”
He also added that “if we think about the history of Albania, in terms of religion is was the only country in the communist world to have in its constitution practical atheism. So if you went to mass it was against the constitution. And then, one of the ministers told me that 1820 churches were destroyed, both Orthodox and Catholic, at that time. Then other churches were transformed into theatres, cinemas, and dancehalls. So I just felt that I had to go. It’s close, just one day.”
According to the recent statistics in the country, Catholics make up only about 16 percent of Albania’s some 3 million inhabitants; about 65 percent are Muslim and 20 percent Orthodox.
Albania is a well-known and special case where Muslims, Orthodox Christians co-exist in an interreligious harmony, rooted in people’s common ethnicity and shared history of persecution.
After coming to power in 1944, former Stalinist communist dictator Enver Hoxha sought to cleanse the country of all religion, even passing a 1967 constitutional law that banned any trace of the divine, which made Albania the first and so-far only atheist nation. Almost all of Albania’s fewer than 200 priests were jailed and scores killed.
Religion resumed practices in November 1990, just a month before the fall of the communist regime following a students’ protest.
Albania enjoys religious freedom, one which it can proudly bolster itself in the world, trying to cope with corruption, a lack of infrastructure and an ancient vigilante code mainly in the North that affects thousands of families, many of them Catholics, called “blood feuds.”
Francis’ visit falls on the feast of St. Matthew, a day of enormous significance for the pope, who, as a 17-year-old boy, strongly felt God’s presence and mercy, inspiring him to religious life.